Ordinary domestic and commercial building structures are divided into rooms (including hallways, closets, and the like) by walls. The walls are provided with doorways to allow for free movement or travel into and out of the buildings and from room to room within the buildings. The doorways are defined by door frame structures that are most commonly established of wood, though metal door frame structures are not uncommon.
The ordinary door frame structure includes laterally spaced vertical jambs and a horizontal header with flat inside surfaces and front and rear edges; stops fixed to and projecting inwardly from the inside surfaces of the jambs and header (between the front and rear edges thereof) and casings (mouldings) fixed to the front and rear edges of and projecting outwardly from the jambs and headers. The jambs of such door frame structures are commonly fastened to laterally spaced vertical studs that define a roughed-in door opening within a related wall structure. The jambs, together with their related header, are set within the roughed-in door opening with their front and rear edges flush with their related front and rear surfaces of the wall structure. The stops are, for example, set forward from the rear edges of the jambs and header a distance equal to the thickness of a door that is hingedly mounted or hung on one of the jambs. The casings are elongate strips of moulding with inside edge portions that are fixed to the inside and outside edges of the jambs and header. The casings bridge between the jambs and header and the wall structure and overlie the edge portions of the front and rear surfaces of the wall that occur about the jambs and headers.
Today's standard wall structures vary from 51/4" and 41/4" in thickness. Accordingly, standard jambs and headers vary between 51/4" and 41/4" in width. In the case of wood door frame structures, the jambs and headers are made of 1/2"-thick lumber.
Standard door stops are made of 11/4".times.3/8" moulding and are disposed to define 11/4" wide inside surfaces and 3/8" wide front and rear edges.
Standard exterior and solid wood doors are 13/4" thick while standard interior and hollow-core doors are 13/8" thick. Doors are commonly mounted within their related door frames with their rear surfaces flush with the rear edges of the jambs and headers and with their front surfaces in close to stopped engagement with their related door stops. Accordingly, where 13/4"-thick doors are used the rear edges of the stops are spaced slightly more than 13/4" from the rear edges of the jambs and headers. Where 13/8"-thick doors are used, the rear edges of the stops are spaced slightly more than 13/8" from the rear edges of the jambs and header.
The standard spacing between the inside surfaces of the jambs and header of a door frame and their opposing edges of a related door is from 3/32" to 4/32" (1/8").
Standard door frame casings vary from 5/8" to 3/8" thick and from 11/4" to 6" wide. Casings are normally nailed or otherwise fixed to their related edges of the jambs and headers with their inside edges spaced or set back from the inside surfaces of the jambs and headers a distance between 1/8" and 1/4". The noted set-back is provided to accommodate the pinned portions of the hinges used to hang the doors.
In accordance with the above, it will be apparent that the term "standard" as applied to door frames defines a rather standard door frame structure certain dimensions of which are subject to limited though notable variations.
A major problem confronted by those who own and/or maintain buildings is the tendency for door frames within their buildings to become marred, damaged and oftentimes mutilated as a result of being impacted, scraped and/or abraded by various objects that are moved or transported through the door openings during ordinary use of the buildings.
In those cases where invalids who must transport themselves in wheelchairs are encountered, it is often extremely difficult for those persons to maneuver their chairs through the doorways of buildings without various parts and/or portions of the chairs impacting and dragging on and across the door frames and doing serious damage thereto. The same is also true in the case of those who, in the course of doing business and the like, move wheeled carts and equipment from room to room in the buildings they occupy.
Those property owners who are restricted to wheelchairs and the like, as well as those whose activities include the frequent or regular movement of equipment about their properties, are equally concerned about the damage that is likely to be caused to their buildings, including the door frames, by their wheelchairs and/or equipment.
As a result of the above, there are those in the prior art who have long sought to provide guards or shields for door frames that might effectively protect the frames against damage by wheelchairs, equipment and the like impacting upon them.
The most common and familiar door frame guards provided by the prior art are simple L-shaped strips of extruded plastic or rubber that are engaged over the outside corner edges of the frames and fixed thereto as by tacks or nails. Such guard strips are highly subject to being caught and displaced by equipment and the like that is moved into engagement therewith and are therefore of questionable utility. They are a nuisance to maintain. Further, the need to nail them in place is highly undesirable since the driving of nails into door frames causes damage thereto and the use of nails in and about doorways, if not "set in," creates serious hazards.
The use of adhesives to hold door frame guards in place has been tried and found to be unsatisfactory since they prevent the guards from being removed from the door frames without damaging the frames or so despoil the surfaces of the door frames that they must be fully refinished or replaced.
Others in the art have provided more extensive door frame guards that are in the nature of elongate channel sections that extend about the front inside and rear surfaces of their related door frame structures in close conformed relationship therewith. These door frame guards are only satisfactory and effective when related to those specific door frame structures for which they are especially designed. They cannot be satisfactorily related to a door frame structure wherein one dimension is notably different from the corresponding dimension of the door frame structure for which they are designed. As a result of the above, such door frame guards or shields have proven to be impractical for commercial exploitation and have met with little or no commercial success.
In accordance with the above, there has been a long-felt need for an effective door frame guard structure that guards the front, inside and rear edges and/or surfaces of a door frame structure and that is such that it can be effectively related to different sizes, makes and models of standard door frame structures wherein uniform standard dimensions are reasonably closely adhered to.